Tidying Up the Front End of a 1946 Ford Roadster Pickup

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and this should explain things more clearly!

It’s not all fancy tools around here you know. I used an argon bottle top to form the curves at each end of this panel!

Using the plasma to cut a relief, the radiused ends were easy to form. I could have made the ends separately, but why make more work for myself, and extra welding?

This second section of the panel will have to be fitted to the first one from behind, but a trial fit showed it to be the perfect length, before unbolting the lower section to facilitate trimming welding it all together.

With the upper section clamped to a steel bench, I used a hand-operated joggler to form a step in the sheetmetal, mainly to provide some strength, but also to negate the need for a 4-foot-long butt-weld and the accompanying warpage issues! The return edge of the lower panel will sit on this “step” …

… as seen here, clamped in place ready to be welded. The 45-degree angle not only provides some stiffness, but hopefully will help direct air through the radiator.

With the welding completed—in short 1-inch sections to reduce the risk of warpage—the joints were ground smooth.

Doesn’t that look better? With small triangular fillets welded into the corners below the radii, the pan is almost complete. All it needed now were a couple of slots for the bumper brackets to pass through. First though I had to fabricate those brackets! Note the masking tape around the grille opening. This prevented any sparks from damaging the paint during the previous grinding session.

I broke out the plasma cutter again and made a pair of brackets from 1/4-inch steel plate to weld to the chassis, as well as some 1 3/4-inch strap for bumper brackets. Note the holes in these are larger than those in the chassis brackets to allow for some adjustment.